1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an apparatus for generating electronic program guides (EPGs) and a control method therefor.
2. Description of the Related Art
These days, due to the start of digital broadcasting, the widespread use of the Internet, and the integration of broadcasting and communication technologies, television viewers are using EPGs more and more often.
An EPG is a program guide (program table) including a plurality of items of program information arranged on a two-dimensional coordinate plane having coordinate axes corresponding to a first program attribute, e.g., channels, and a second program attribute, e.g., program broadcast times. By the use of an EPG, the television viewers can search for programs that they wish to watch as if they were using a newspaper television program guide.
Generally, as the number of programs arranged in an EPG is increased, the display area for each program becomes smaller, which makes it necessary to reduce the size and number of characters of program information. Accordingly, it is difficult for the viewers to recognize what kinds of programs are being displayed.
One of the functions of EPGs superior to those of newspaper television program guides is the function of highlighting information concerning recommended programs, such as programs that match users' preferences or programs that match predetermined search conditions. For example, a technique for extending display areas of recommended programs by the use of a popup function and for displaying the recommended programs in a form that can be easily recognized has been proposed. “Popup” means making display areas pop up as if they were floating on top of a screen, and “extending” means increasing the size of display areas.
Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2004-320503 discloses the following display method. An EPG defined by only the frame of the EPG and the partition lines between the program areas is displayed. Marks associated with programs selected under predetermined conditions are placed in the vicinities of the programs areas. More specifically, in the overview state in which program areas are displayed with a very small size without displaying information concerning the programs in the form of characters in the program areas, marks associated with programs selected under predetermined conditions are displayed near the corresponding program areas in a size larger than the program areas. If programs that match predetermined conditions are positioned close to each other, the position of the marks may be changed or the marks may be displayed by being overlapped with each other. This makes it easy to visually recognize the all of the multi-channel broadcast programs.
However, the method disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2004-320503 does not take into consideration the case where many programs (recommended programs) that match predetermined conditions are positioned close to one another.
For example, in the above-described case, if the positions of the marks associated with the recommended programs are shifted so that they are not overlapped with one another, the positions of the marks may be displaced from the areas of the recommended programs by a considerable distance. This makes it difficult for the users to recognize the channels or broadcast times of the recommended programs associated with the marks.
Alternatively, as stated above, if many recommended programs are positioned close to one another, the marks associated with the recommended programs may be displayed by being overlapped with one another without shifting the positions of the marks. In this case, however, it becomes difficult to recognize marks positioned in an area underneath an area displaying program information. As stated above, instead of using marks, program information may be displayed by extending the size of the program information as a popup portion (popup window). Particularly in this case, if a plurality of items of program information are displayed by being overlapped with one another, it is more difficult for the users to recognize the characters of the program information.
Accordingly, if many recommended programs are positioned close to one another, it is necessary to consider displaying information concerning the recommended programs in a form that can be easily recognized.